would this upset you?

[SMS55]

Yes. I stay in the resorts each and every time I go. Always have. And for our last few trips I did not get the half sheet printed paper that they tell you to stick in the window. And I get in the gate without parking by showing my room key card. What are you showing them? :shrug:

When you check in they put it in the booklet. I do online check-in and when they hand it to me, they show the room keys, site plan and parking pass and send me off. It's never been missing.

 

[Random Vids Inc]

I mean you could do the same thing by parking at Downtown Disney and taking a bus. I know many who do that!

 

[flynnibus]

Yes. I stay in the resorts each and every time I go. Always have. And for our last few trips I did not get the half sheet printed paper that they tell you to stick in the window. And I get in the gate without parking by showing my room key card. What are you showing them? :shrug:

In my experience.. the resorts will ask to see key card in addition to the paper... but the parks only look at the paper.

But the key card check I can't say if that's all the time or all the properties.

The park people barely even glance at the parking slip.

 

[G00fyDad]

We stayed on propery in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011 and we got that slip of paper every time. Seems odd that you did not. :shrug:

May be odd but I didn't. Heck, I still have my packet from 2010 sitting on a shelf right beside me on my desk. As I blow the dust off of it and check to be sure I did not miss it.... nope. No sheet of paper. I swear, I have not gotten one since 2005. :shrug:

When you check in they put it in the booklet. I do online check-in and when they hand it to me, they show the room keys, site plan and parking pass and send me off. It's never been missing.

I have not had one since 2005. Honest. I never mentioned it to the desk clerk mainly because I forgot to the first time but I never bothered after that because it just wasn't something anyone, and I mean anyone, asked me for.

In my experience.. the resorts will ask to see key card in addition to the paper... but the parks only look at the paper.

But the key card check I can't say if that's all the time or all the properties.

The park people barely even glance at the parking slip.

The guard asked to see the paper in 2005 at the Caribbean Beach Resort but we have been staying at the All Stars and Pop since then and the guards there have only asked to see the room card. That's it. And the parks have never asked to see the paper, I just flash the room card at them as we drive in. I even asked my wife how they know that we aren't using an older year card since they seem to never change the design.

 

[Captain Chaos]

The only time I ever got one of those window papers is after the CM at the front desk asked me if I'd need one for my car... Other than that, nope, never had one in my packet...

 

[flynnibus]

maybe it has to do with how the reservation is setup then.. dunno

but back to the original post.. it shows just how far this woman went when there are much simpler ways to be dishonest if one wants to be

 

[AgentB911]

Got sucked into the youtube wormhole again and stumbled upon this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdv5NUSYyxo&feature=related

Thought it was relevent:shrug:

I don't think it's that big of a deal. All of yinz that are mad...are mad because maybe you didn't think of this first? :veryconfu

 

[Master Yoda]

May be odd but I didn't. Heck, I still have my packet from 2010 sitting on a shelf right beside me on my desk. As I blow the dust off of it and check to be sure I did not miss it.... nope. No sheet of paper. I swear, I have not gotten one since 2005. :shrug:

maybe it has to do with how the reservation is setup then.. dunno

but back to the original post.. it shows just how far this woman went when there are much simpler ways to be dishonest if one wants to be

Typically, the CM that is checking you in will ask if you have a car and then print out a parking pass. On occasion I have seen them forget to ask and I have had to ask for. So far when I have used online check in the presence of a parking pass in the packet has been hit or miss. The parking lots at the park will take a valid room key for parking but the parking pass in the window is a bit quicker and easier.

And now we know, and knowing is half the battle!

 

[Florida_is_hot]

Would not bother me at all....
Think it be funny though to see her car towed out of the lot and impounded.

 

[devoy1701]

Would not bother me at all....
Think it be funny though to see her car towed out of the lot and impounded.

Even if Disney knew of someone doing this, I very much doubt they would tow someone's car just for parking without paying. They would not risk loosing a guest even if they were in the wrong. Not paying for parking is a very minor issue when it comes to things you could possibly be caught doing wrong at Disney.

 

[Master Yoda]

Even if Disney knew of someone doing this, I very much doubt they would tow someone's car just for parking without paying. They would not risk loosing a guest even if they were in the wrong. Not paying for parking is a very minor issue when it comes to things you could possibly be caught doing wrong at Disney.

Well..... it actually depends on when and where they park. The Contemporary and the Poly were common targets for people trying to avoid paying for parking and Disney has towed unauthorized vehicles from those lots during peak and holiday season.

 

[G00fyDad]

Typically, the CM that is checking you in will ask if you have a car and then print out a parking pass. On occasion I have seen them forget to ask and I have had to ask for. So far when I have used online check in the presence of a parking pass in the packet has been hit or miss. The parking lots at the park will take a valid room key for parking but the parking pass in the window is a bit quicker and easier.

And now we know, and knowing is half the battle!

Okay. Now I feel odd about this. I haven't had one of these papers for our car since 2005 and have not bothered to get one so that means that I may, however unlikely it is, run the risk of getting my car towed even though I am checked in to the resort in question. Thank you for clearing this up. I'll be asking for one of these papers from now on.

 

[Patrick_Ears]

Disney may stop this one day.. not sure if they will or not, but here is a idea. When you check in at one of there resorts they will give a special band or marking on your resorts cards. If the bus driver does not see this mark or band then you can not ride there buses from the resorts..

But i'm sure just like a few said, Disney is not going to turn down money away from there parks. Plus i can understand that it makes people upset because you are paying for this service and it puts more people on the buses..

 

[LaughingGravy]

If true, driving to ASM 14 days in a row seems kind of a stretch for the sake of parking.
When does the vacation stop being a vacation and turn into an exercise on how to game the system?

I say let the crazies have their crazy. They are clearly in the minority and so long as they don't detract from my experience, fine.

Extra gas and time both ways?
If it's one car, say 4 people, when does it make more sense to simply stay on-site with parking privileges for the parks at a value resort?
After dealing with the bus rigamarole, the last thing I want to do is then get into a car and drive someplace.

If at a value, sure, it's not a big house with a kitchen off-site on the cheap, but if you're doing that for 14 days, how much time can possibly be spent in the house to justify all that extra effort for the savings in nightly accommodation cost, compared to a value?

Heck, we barely have time to eat, wind down and sleep enough as it is before park opening the next day.

We've done the rental thing off site as well when we did Universal and Sea World on the same trip.
It does make sense to stay off site when doing non-Disney parks, but the OP mentioned 14 days cheating the Disney parking. I would call that a Disney trip.

When we go, we kind of go commando in that we do the park(s) opening to close. That's why we're there.
The free parking for resort guests allows us to use the car to get there early and also leave late without dealing with the hoards of people during the bus crunch when everyone's feet and everything/everyone else is tired.

One of the best moments was walking right out of Epcot at the end of the night, with a much shorter walk than to a value resort bus (no line or wait), to a nice car with our music, A/C, soft, comfy, (and assured) seats.
Quick trip back to the ASM, where we parked much closer to our room than the bus stop would have let us off. We had a far away room.

Now, if the story teller about the 14 days of free parking was staying someplace local, perhaps at a relative's house for free, and that was the only way they could afford to go to the park, I could kind of see going through the extra effort. But, damn, if you're going to do that, you'd better be bringing at least one meal a day into the park with you, like some sandwiches.

 

[slappy magoo]

The flaw I see in that is that it makes no difference who they get the $14 from. If I am there with a party of 8, and we break up into two groups of four and drive two cars in, then Disney gets $28 from my party. But if, as you say, we all cram into my van and park one vehicle, and leave the space open for another car, then Disney gets only $14 from us, but $14 from someone else. Still $28 either way, except by piling all 8 of us into the van, there is the possibility that no one else will take that spot and Disney won't get that other $14. Maybe I'm missing something in your reasoning. Can you explain further?

IF your party crammed into one car, leaving another parking spot for another group crammed into another car, that means more people in the parks. Not only do they have the $14 from each party, but now there are more people in the parks to spend money on meals and trinkets.

Also, the fewer cars there are in the lot, the easier it is to get everyone out at the end of the night, meaning the cleanup crews can do whatever they have to do faster; if they're hourly wage-earners, that means they can clock them out earlier.

This also means (potentially) people are leaving as a group earlier because they came in as a group; it just takes one cranky kid in a party of 8 to go "I'm tired, I want to go NOW!" and the party is usually off, as opposed to a "you guys go ahead we'll catch up back at the hotel/condo" because there are two cars for that group. This means the parks thin out faster and THOSE cleanup crews can get stuff started sooner, too

There's also a bit of a psychological component as well. If getting into WDW is a tremendous pain in the keister, you may come into the park with a bad attitude as a result, and spend a lot of the day grumbling about what a P.I.T.A. it'll be to get out of there, and WDW's management wants you happy and carefree because that's the state of mind where people are less likely to think about what things cost.

Lots of reasons all contributing to the same goal - WDW getting as many people into the parks as possible, making as much money as they can from the people who are there AND getting them out ASAP at closing so the crews can finish cleaning sooner.

 

[Amber]

Are you really staying at these properties than?

Because if you didn't get the slip of paper, you'd be asking for it - it's how you prove you don't need to pay for parking at the parks.

I can tell you the guards can be strict - it depends on the location and time. At times the MK resorts get very strict - and they do have lists of reservations for those resorts with table service resturants.

I was wondering if this would come up. We stay at the Grand Floridian, but we go to the Poly and the Contemporary multiple times during our vacation. EVERY guard checks and re-checks our room key and looks at the parking pass. The thing I don't understand is why they give us such a hard time - if we were looking for parking and monorail access we would just park at our own resort!!

When you check in they put it in the booklet. I do online check-in and when they hand it to me, they show the room keys, site plan and parking pass and send me off. It's never been missing.

We usually get two - one from the guard when we first arrive and another in the folder at check in.

We even had one guard at the GF that didn't want to let us in because we showed my card which had a different last name from the reservation (which was the name on the parking pass). The dates were valid on both my KTTW and the parking pass. I thought that was a bit extreme.

Given our experiences, I don't know how anyone could get away with it for 14 days. :shrug:

 

[Motorpro]

I am so sick of people saying it is not the fault of the people stealing its the fault of Disney for not catching them. Thats like saying it is not the bank robbers fault is the fault of bank for not having a better vault. Theft is theft and the only thing worse is that she is teaching her kids to steal.

 

[sbkline]

I am so sick of people saying it is not the fault of the people stealing its the fault of Disney for not catching them. Thats like saying it is not the bank robbers fault is the fault of bank for not having a better vault. Theft is theft and the only thing worse is that she is teaching her kids to steal.

Again, it's not so black and white. There are varying degrees of theft and many of us "steal" in ways that we don't even think of. How many of us might use a piece of workplace paper here and there to write down personal stuff? How many of us might use the workplace stapler for personal use? If you went to the supply cabinet and helped yourself to a whole ream of paper or a box of staples, everyone would agree that it's theft, but no one thinks of it as theft if you use just one or two staples, or a sheet or two of paper, etc. Here's another one for you; I've never thought anything about pulling off the interstate and walking into a McDonalds to take a whiz, then walk back out and get back on the road. But I remember one year, my brother and I and a friend were going to Six Flags, and I had to use the restroom, so I stopped at a McDonald's. My brother made the comment that he should buy something and when I asked why, he replied that otherwise, it's theft. The restrooms are for paying customers, and if you don't buy anything, then you're stealing the water and the soap that it takes to flush the toilet and wash your hands, and I suppose the toilet paper (if applicable) and the paper towels, or electric for the hand dryers. I never thought of it as stealing...I just thought of it as pulling off at the most convenient place to take a leak. Maybe he's technically right that I'm "stealing", but I'm not really worried that my kids are going to become shoplifters by watching their Dad pull off into McDonald's for a restroom break.

So in a technical sense, you may be right, that the parking practice may be stealing, but the average person doesn't think of it that way. And I don't believe it is "stealing" on the same level as robbing a bank, or shoplifting. When a kid sees his parent park at a resort or DTD, I highly doubt that he's going to take the time to think the issue though to the logical conclusion that you have arrived at, and conclude that it's okay to steal DVDs from Walmart. Seriously, the kids are just excited to be getting on the bus to the theme park...I really don't think there thinking the issue though like "well, Mom was supposed to pay $14 for parking, but instead she parked here for free. That's stealing. Therefore, it must be okay to take items off the shelf without paying for them". :lol:

So before we get on a high horse about people doing this type of thing, maybe we should all think of ways that we all technically "steal" without even taking the time to think of it as stealing. Perhaps we sometimes get wrapped up in a coversation on a paid break time at work and end up taking a few extra minutes on break. Theft. Perhaps we stop and chit chat a little with someone on work hours. Theft. Perhaps we play on the internet on office time. Theft. I'm sure that there isn't one of us who isn't guilty of "theft" in at least one of the ways I've mentioned. But, like parking in the hotel and then bussing over to the park, none of us conciously think of it as stealing.

 

[flynnibus]

Sbkline - does your office have an existing policy to charge you for using supplies like that?

You example is noble but fails for that reason. This isn't a grey use of the service, you are explicitly trying to avoid an established setup to charge for this exact service. There is no stretching of usage.... No unspecified charge or not... This parking situation is direct, intentional, and with full awareness the steps are to avoid paying. That's why it's stealing and that's why it's poor ethics.

No one accidental runs over there time... Or is exchanging donated time for time on the clock etc.

This is people trying to justify directly and intentional avoiding paying for something they know is a charged item.

 

[sbkline]

Sbkline - does your office have an existing policy to charge you for using supplies like that?

You example is noble but fails for that reason. This isn't a grey use of the service, you are explicitly trying to avoid an established setup to charge for this exact service. There is no stretching of usage.... No unspecified charge or not... This parking situation is direct, intentional, and with full awareness the steps are to avoid paying. That's why it's stealing and that's why it's poor ethics.

No one accidental runs over there time... Or is exchanging donated time for time on the clock etc.

This is people trying to justify directly and intentional avoiding paying for something they know is a charged item.

There does not need to be an official policy. It's office paper, paid for by the company, for office use. Technically, it's stealing to use even one sheet for personal use. Now, maybe the boss doesn't care. He may walk by and see you whip out a piece of paper to use to for your shopping list and it won't bother him a bit. But neither does Disney seem to care that people avoid paying for parking in this manner.

But my point isn't that it isn't "stealing" in a technical sense. My point is that before you or anyone else gets on the moral high horse, consider all the ways that you might be guilty of "theft" as well. Do you pull off the highway and use a restroom that is intended for paying customers? Do you run into Pecos Bill's for a quick second to grab a few napkins to wipe your kid's runny nose?

And another thing to consider, perhaps, at least in part, the expected $14 fee isn't just for parking the vehicle, but for the convenience of being right by the park for quick entry. If you want to park for free at the All Star Resorts, you forfeit the quick easy entrance into the park. Disney has free public parking at DTD, knowing that people will park there and bus over to the park. But again, by doing so, they are forfeiting the quick, easy entry into the park. For $14, they can park in a lot right by the park. When the park closes, they just walk, or take the tram to the lot and they get in their car and are on their way. But by opting for the free parking, now they have to wait in line for a bus. Perhaps having to wait 10 minutes while the person in the ECV gets situated. Then, depending on how long the line is, they might have to watch that bus pull away and then wait for another bus. Once on the bus, they might have to make other stops before getting to the place where they parked. So again, that $14 might not even be so much for that parking space itself as it is for the conveniece of proximity to the park from your parking spot. So looking at it that way, it's not even theft. It's just opting for the "free parking" option and then getting what you did not pay for: waiting in line for the bus, potentially long bus ride...a lot of wasted time that could have been spent in the park had you paid the $14.

But again, if we're gonna consider it "stealing", let's at least be realistic enough to acknowledge that there are differing levels and degrees of "theft". Because, to equate this practice with shoplifting, IMO, is totally ludicrous. This practice may be "theft" in the most techinical sense, just as my examples are as well, but you kind of have to think it through to realize that it is "theft". When someone walks into Walmart and shoves a DVD under his shirt and walks out the store, he is very deliberately and knowingly taking something that isn't his without paying. It is willful, blatant theft. When someone stops at McDonalds to go to the bathroom, he isn't conciously thinking "hey, I'm gonna steal a few pints of water, and a few sheets of toilet paper". He's just thinking he has to go ______. When someone parks at DTD or the All Stars, he isn't thinking he is stealing from Disney. He's just thinking that Disney doesn't make him pay to park at these places and he's willing to forfeit the benefits of parking "next door" in favor of parking for free. In your mind, your thinking it through to a conclusion and deciding that it's theft, but I don't think these people are putting that much thought into it. They just see that Disney offers some free parking and they are taking advantage of it.